Cause marketing is a great way to promote social good while building your brand reputation over time, making it an essential component of a complete marketing strategy.
Cause marketing involves aligning a business with a cause pushing positive global change. These campaigns show that your business has set values in place that your audiences share, connecting you with all kinds of communities. Examples of causes businesses may support through marketing include everything from sustainability and non-profit support to social equality.
Cause marketing benefits the brand behind it along with the specific cause, connecting businesses with audiences in a way that less impactful campaigns cannot. Here we'll explore what cause marketing is and how you can build your next campaign around a cause important to you, your employees, and your audience.
Use cause marketing campaigns to increase brand awareness, promote your business alongside a worthwhile relevant cause, generate more leads, and build loyalty among existing customers.
If you want to get the best results from your cause marketing campaigns, the following are some steps to take to get started.
The first step involves choosing a specific cause to support. The ideal cause for your brand will align with your business's core values. Also, you should select a cause that genuinely connects with your audiences and, in turn, inspires them to connect with you. For instance, health and wellness brand The Body Shop chose to support various assisted living communities and shelters to provide people in need with a selection of their products, including soaps, shampoos, and other care products.
Once you've chosen a particular cause for your campaign, you can craft a strong message to promote it and build hype around it. You should disclose why you chose the cause you support and what it means to you and your employees. You can also create a tagline or hashtag for your campaign to ensure it's memorable and stands out.
You can then begin designing various marketing materials to promote your campaign, including digital and print media. You can create a dedicated page on your website, build social media campaigns, create ads, and generate other content around your cause.
You must choose the appropriate channels to begin promoting your cause marketing campaign. There are plenty of platforms to help you successfully launch your campaign, including SMS texts, social media posts, marketing emails, blog posts, and more.
To effectively support your cause, you must choose a good partner that helps you achieve your goals. This partner could include a shelter, a non-profit organization, or another noncompetitor brand in your industry. For instance, Bombas developed a cause marketing campaign that entails donating an article of clothing with every purchase. To achieve this, the company works with over 3,500 non-profit organizations.
When building your partnerships, establish the specific responsibilities and expectations for each. You should also work to maintain strong relationships with your partners to get the most from your efforts.
With everything ready, you can launch your campaign on all relevant channels. Publish all pertinent content and regularly engage with audiences throughout the campaign. You should also collect data to help you measure the results.
Based on the goals in place for your campaign, you can measure its success after it completes. Look at key insights and see what went right and what could use some work. Look at how people engaged with your campaign and their level of involvement.
Using the results gathered, you can adequately assess your cause marketing campaigns to help you plan. Consider what aspects of your campaign underperformed and work to optimize those for future campaigns. As you continue engaging in cause marketing over the years, you can work on perfecting your campaigns.
The cause marketing benefits make these campaigns worth investing time, energy, and budget. If you want the best results from your campaign, working with a media partner to help you build a successful strategy is best. At Mid-West Family Springfield, we have the expertise and resources required to create successful cause marketing campaigns using a multi-media approach.
Contact us today to find out what we can do to help your cause marketing efforts succeed.